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Tag: ESPN Star

  • DSport bags rights of Chinese League, IPL on cards

    MUMBAI: Discovery’s newest offering in the sports industry, DSport, has acquired the rights of the Chinese Super League (CSL). The tournament will be aired from 11 March.

    Launched on 6 February, the channel is guided by former MD of ESPN Star and former CEO of Dish TV India R.C. Venkateish.

    Venkateish said that the star-studded tournament will be telecast from March 11. Big names like Oscar and Carlos Tevez have already joined the league. He is also looking forward to announce about getting the Wayne Rooney deal with the Shanghai team by the end of this month.

    The channel has also acquired rights for three other major national football leagues — the Brazilian League, Major League Soccer (MLS) and the Portuguese league.

    It will also telecast the Tour de France from this season, and it will also beam major horse racing events like the Dubai Racing World Cup as well as the Melbourne Cup.

    DSport is also willing to take part in the bidding process for bagging the rights to telecast the IPL later this year. Venkateish will steer the channel to bid for it.

    Also Read:

    Telecast rights-holder D SPORT to air Aus Women’s Open featuring Aditi

  • DSport, Discovery’s expansion into under-served areas beyond factual

    DSport, Discovery’s expansion into under-served areas beyond factual

    MUMBAI: After dividing its offering into two verticals- female & family entertainment product and real world entertainment product- Discovery Networks has now entered the sports genre with its latest offering. Priced at Rs 12.6 on reference interconnect offer (RIO), and Rs 32 for the  high-definition version, DSport provides access to unmatched live sporting action from around the world. With an aim to provide 4000+ hours of live content annually, DSport will air international sports properties ranging from horse racing to football, motorsports, rugby and cycling. Targeted at the passionate community of sports lovers, the channel will offer a daily dose of 10+ hours of live content for viewers across the country.

    The channel went live on 6 February and reached about 35 million households.

    In this fast evolving digital space where more and more digital platforms are providing live coverage of several sports events, Discovery Networks, in the current scenario, does not see owning a digital platform as the best profitable business in India. Though, it is entering the digital space with its remarkable IPs which they are licensing across multiple digital Over-The-Top (OTT) platforms.

    “The only thing we are not entering right now as is our own platform because I don’t think the economics of it are suitable for every broadcaster. Going on hypothesis, I think that owning a digital platform might not be the best profitable business in India because the consumer acquisition cost is very high and the retention rates of the platforms are very low. It’s the easiest thing to launch a technological platform with content offering but acquiring people to sign in on the platform is a high end cost. 80 per cent of the subscribers are out of the platform in a month. They have no stickiness to the platform. So, we will create remarkable IPs like we have for sports and then decide whether to sign exclusive deals with the existing platforms or to distribute it across a range of digital platforms. Whatever makes the best financial sense. Our push for digital is very aggressive,” said Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific senior vice president and general manager Karan Bajaj.

    He further added, “I think that we should possess content that is so remarkable that every network wants to own it, which is much more profitable business rather than owning your own platform. We are acquiring linear and digital rights for every property. We are creating digital brands with digital native players which we will be licensing through multiple platforms. My objective is to serve the digital consumers; the consumers who are looking at things digitally. And launching a digital platform is subscale for us.”

    Former MD of ESPN Star and former CEO of Dish TV India R.C. Venkateish will be working closely with DSport especially in areas related to content acquisition for the channel.

    The channel will be a part of the sports tier via a subscription model on both DTH and cable in both HD and SD. It has already partnered with Hathway and bunch of other cable platforms and are in talks with several DTH players. “The channel will be distributed in the same way as our other channels,” added Bajaj.  

    Bajaj also opined that the channel has received very strong response from the advertisers. In its initial phase, the channel does not plan to have any advertisements to hit the scale and distribution for a lucrative business of its advertisers.  

    The network is marketing the channel thoughtfully. It is promoting the channel community wise rather than massively. “It is best to target specific communities to market the channel rather than doing one or two big promotional activities,” added Bajaj.  

    DSport redefines sports coverage in India with a wide repertoire of exciting properties from across the world of sports. These will initially include:

    ·  Horse Racing: exclusive rights to telecast daily live racing from the best of UK and Irish tracks totaling over 7000 races/ year

    ·  Football: Brazilian League, Chinese Super League, Portuguese League, Major League Soccer (USA)

    ·  Golf: British Open (The Open Championship), US Open, PGA Championship, LPGA

    ·  Motorsports: NASCAR, FIA World Rallycross Championship

    ·  Rugby: 6 Nations Rugby

    · Cycling: Tour de France (a property of Eurosport)

    DSport is in advanced negotiations for selected high quality cricket events to add to the above-mentioned portfolio.

    The other channels of the network, Discovery, Science, Turbo, Animal Planet, TLC, ID, Kids, will perceive a complete change in its look and feel starting with Discovery channel by June end followed by the rest. It plans to have 200 hours of original localized content not limited to infotainment but diversifying into other genres like crime, adventure, automation, etc. The key focus, apart from localisation and number of hours, will be on the nature of storytelling.

    Also Read:

    Discovery’s D-Sport goes live today

  • Wimbledon ad spots sold out: ESPN Star

    Wimbledon ad spots sold out: ESPN Star

    MUMBAI: As top tennis players in the world get ready to vie for the esteemed Wimbledon title, sports broadcaster ESPN Star is wide smiled as it has managed to sell out all the ad spots.

    Brands like Rolex, Thai Airways, Nokia and IBM are among the nine sponsors on board. Six others, including Red Bull, Pernod Ricard and Renault India, have also booked spots.

    “In the past 7-8 years, Wimbledon ad spots have always been sold out and this year the story is the same,” ESPN Software India executive VP Sanjay Kailash, told PTI.

    Asked about the ad revenue, he declined to comment but said the rates have gone up between five per cent and 10 per cent as against last year.

    According to media planners, the broadcaster is charging about Rs 20,000-Rs 25,000 for a 10-second spot.

    Kailash said the championship, which will be held from 24 June to 7 July this year, will be telecast on three channels, Star Sports 2, ESPN and ESPN HD in India.

    “There will be 150 hours of live matches, which is more than 25 per cent from last year. The number of different live matches will also increase,” he said, adding, viewership would also increase considerably.

    According to industry estimates, Wimbledon viewership in India last year was about 20-25 million.

    In an attempt to promote the event, the broadcaster has already rolled out campaigns on its different channels, and also during the ongoing ICC Champions Trophy, clearly leaving no stone unturned to make the grand slam event a grand success.

  • ‘Free sports channels from Trai pricing’-Taj Television COO Peter Hutton

    ‘Free sports channels from Trai pricing’-Taj Television COO Peter Hutton

    MUMBAI: 2009 was the year to be in a different industry. ESPN-Star‘s billion dollar investment in cricket‘s Champions League made the Dubai property market look a safe bet. The IPL riches were diverted into the pockets of South African travel agents. In the ICC‘s showpiece event, India‘s world champion 20-20 team batted so slowly they turned into the No. 1 Test team. India‘s hockey team fell so low, the world rankings needed a second page. The Commonwealth Games promises India Gold medals for bad publicity and even WWE‘s Khali lost whatever it was he‘d won the year before.

    Add that to world economic woes, rampant news channel piracy, illegal websites, Pakistan cricket, rain in the West Indies and having to move house, and you‘ve got my year to forget.

    On the positive side, 2010 is the year of the big event for Indian sports channels. The Hero Honda hockey World Cup, the IPL, the ICC 20-20, the FIFA soccer World Cup, the Commonwealth Games, India‘s tour of South Africa and the Asian Games all tumble after each other.

    The advertising incomes are looking healthier, DTH numbers are growing month on month and the range of big non cricket events can help change the perception that only cricket delivers value.

    2009 was the year when hardly any major new sports deals were done in India. The one exception was Nimbus‘s extension of the BCCI contract, a smart piece of negotiating by the Nimbus team that perhaps signifies a levelling of expectation from the cricket boards. That reality check on price is needed, but the doom and gloom on the value of Test and ODI cricket has been overplayed. The ratings still deliver remarkably consistently for meaningful cricket between well balanced teams in whatever format of the game.

    One of the less heralded legacies of the “Lalit Modi era” has been the quiet removal of the concept of each Test playing side playing each other Test playing side home and away. Zimbabwe and Bangladesh‘s best chance of seeing India these days is by booking a holiday in Goa. The BCCI is happy to travel to the smaller cricketing nations (giving Bangladesh and Zimbabwe the boost of TV and sponsor income), but they‘re not going to waste their precious home games on one-sided matches. It might not suit the ICC, but it works for both the BCCI and the other boards.

    2010 should finally see the unveiling of cricket‘s next six-year plan of fixtures, and what will hopefully see a “flight to quality”. More matches that promise even contests between well matched sides rather than meaningless three-day Tests and ODIs that are won by the toss.

    2009‘s seen plenty of talk of defending Test match cricket. My pet obsession is seeing how many Test matches are being scheduled to play Monday-Friday, as if designed to stop people watching them. The only people these matches suit are the administrators who get home for the weekend. Hopefully 2010 will see success in the pink ball, day night experiments and we will be on the way to Test cricket being played in prime time.

    The best piece of rescheduling I‘ve seen for some time is the Pakistan-Australia Tests in July 2010, which will now happen in England and will make the matches happen in prime time for the sub-continent audience. At a stroke, they become much more valuable for the sport as so many more people will be able to watch them.

    Pakistan‘s varied itinerary also saw the debut of Dubai Sports city as an international stadium. It‘s round the corner from my house, so I am slightly biased, but I believe it‘s the best cricket stadium in Asia for the viewing public. One of my hopes for 2010 is that it gets to see some regular cricket rather than sit as a dusty monument to Dubai‘s dreams.

    Away from cricket in 2009, the world hockey federation (the FIH) have shown faith in India to deliver a hockey World Cup that can revitalise the sport in the country. The evidence so far has been remarkably positive. Investment from sponsors (via the Commune agency) has poured in and the Hero Honda World Cup will be a true opportunity for the Indian game.

    The Indian team are showing signs of progress (third in the champions challenge). Hopefully, home conditions and passionate crowds can work in their favour and the final of the tournament in March will overshadow the start of the IPL on the same day.

    Zee Sports deserves full marks for bravery in their attempt to showcase Indian football. Plenty have tried and failed to turn the undoubted passion for Indian football into a marketable property. The emotion and quality on show at the Nehru Cup in 2009 is an indication that this is not a lost cause. However, the sport needs to learn from the positive qualities of the Nehru Cup. Full crowds, matches to care about, prime time content all come together as part of the equation that can make the sport work.

    International football is certainly gaining ground in some areas of India, even if the viewing figures don‘t really back that statement up. Premium Indian advertisers are beginning to spend on the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League and the BPL. Wealthy Delhi and Mumbai kids all seem to have an English or Spanish football shirt in their wardrobe, and the FIFA world Cup in South Africa should be a superb event.

    The international football market is licking its lips at the prospect of an Indian audience buying more of those shirts. The research doesn‘t currently support the emotion. Premier league and UEFA Champions League figures are showing no signs of growth, but they are showing signs that people care more.

    The soccer World Cup can only help the process in 2010. I do believe ESPN-Star overpaid with their $48 million bid for three years of Premier League football from 2010-2012, but I remain very happy to watch them every weekend.

    One of the sporting stories of the year for 2009 came in a sport that I care very little about. Formula 1 tends to leave me cold, but I love an underdog. As a result Vijay Mallya‘s Force India perked even my interest with their achievements in 2009. To take a podium place and come so close to a first place was remarkable, particularly when you see the sort of funding that the big teams have. As we move towards an Indian Grand Prix and the new circuit on the edge of Delhi, then there is considerable potential for growth around Indian motorsport and its talented young drivers.

    Indian golf has some passionate supporters in the industry and 2010 promises more Asian tour events in the country as well as more Indian golfers succeeding on a world stage. Again, from a television industry perspective, we don‘t really see the numbers on a weekly basis but the passionate and committed golf viewer certainly wants more, and the current structure of Indian sports channels does not fulfil that need.

    Though sporting prowess on the field has a remarkable effect on the value of what we show, the real test for the Indian market is how quickly television sport is allowed to move away from being an advertising supported industry to a subscriber supported industry.

    The lack of accountability and the issues with collections in the cable industry has frustrated the growth of the Indian television sports business. DTH is a true sign of hope, with a viewer choosing and paying for his channel rather than a cable operator choosing for a viewer, and only occasionally paying. The closer that paying relationship between the end consumer and the sports channel, the more chance we have of justifying varied and stimulating content that people actually want to watch.

    Indian sports television has come a long way in the last 15 years since I sat watching Chinese football on Prime Sports but unable to watch the Premier league. Yet there is still huge amount of quality sport inside and outside India that is not seen on TV by an Indian audience. The World Athletics Championships, the Spanish football league, the Ultimate Fighting Championships, the European hockey league, the American NFL are all events that some people in India want to watch, but currently cannot do so. The rest of the world is now watching in HD, but India is watching in 4:3, not even in widescreen.

    Free the sports channels from the limitations of Trai (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) pricing, and the doors will open to even better experiences. Control the piracy, encourage innovation. Allow variety of sporting experience, encourage quality of production. Filling each hour of live sport programming with advertising, squeezing back the screen every ball of a cricket match does not deliver the quality of viewing experience that an audience deserves.

    Let‘s hope that 2010 allows sports channels the legislative freedoms to offer premium products at premium prices and take Indian sports TV into the 21st century.
     

  • ESPN Star goes off China’s airwaves

    ESPN Star goes off China’s airwaves

    MUMBAI: Pan Asian sports broadcaster ESPN Star Sports (ESS) has gone off the air in China after the authorities refused to renew their permits last week.

    A report in Variety states that they were the only channels among a group of foreign networks not to be re-upped by China’s State Administration for Radio, Film and Television (Sarft). No reason was given for the refusal.

    ESS was already restricted to broadcasting to hotels with three-star or higher ratings and to compounds for foreign nationals.

    “ESPN Star Sports is still in the renewal process of its ‘landing rights’ and is actively working to conclude the arrangements,” the Variety report quoted an ESS spokesman as saying in a written statement.

    Meanwhile Sarft will impose stricter restrictions over prime time TV series from next month. Sarft says that the country’s satellite TV stations should only screen ‘ethically inspiring TV series’ during prime time, which reflect the reality of China in a positive way.

    The restriction will go into effect in February and last for at least eight months state reports.

  • ESPN Star wins ICC global telecast rights

    ESPN Star wins ICC global telecast rights

    MUMBAI: In what was virtually a come-from-behind victory, ESPN Star Sports has walked away with the audio-visual rights for International Cricket Council (ICC) conducted events for the next eight years from late 2007 to 2015.

    A statement issued by the ICC announcing the winner said, “The decision was a unanimous one, taken by the ICC Board in Dubai on Saturday, and the ICC will now seek to reach final agreement with ESPN STAR Sports.”

    The ICC statement was silent on what the “final figure on the agreement” was, other than to say that it was “significantly in excess of the ICC’s previous commercial deal The previous agreement with the Global Cricket Corporation (GCC), included sponsorship rights as well as the audio-visual component and was worth $550 million for the years 2000 to 2007.

    ESS, which had only made a territory bid covering the Indian Subcontinent and the Middle East in the first round, upped the ante in the second and final round of tenders on Thursday, putting in a global bid and beating out Harish Thawani’s Nimbus, as well as separate tenders made by Zee and its recent acquisition Ten Sports. Ten Sports’ bid was made in partnership with sports marketing agency Infront.

    As far as how the bids stacked up in the end, ESS’ winning punt was $ 1.1 billion, well ahead of Nimbus bid of $ 900 million, sources in Dubai close to the developments have told Indiantelevision.com. As for Zee and Ten Sports, their bids were in the region of $ 850 million and $ 825 million respectively.

    A point of note is that other than Nimbus, all the bidders had upped their tender values in the second round. ESS, as already mentioned, hadn’t even put in a global bid in the earlier round. Zee’s earlier bid was reportedly $ 620 million, while in the case of Ten Sports-Infront, it was said to be $ 750 million.

    Included in the eight-year period of the ICC rights ESS has acquired are 18 ICC tournaments with two World Cups, in Asia (2011) and Australasia (2015), and a minimum of three Champions Trophy tournaments.

    Also included are the first two Twenty20 World Championships, in South Africa (2007) and England (2009), the latter taking place in the ICC’s centenary year.

    Then there are Cricket World Cup qualifiers, four ICC U/19 Cricket World Cups, and, for the first time, the Women’s Cricket World Cup, with two tournaments scheduled for 2009 (Australia) and 2013 (India) in the eight-year timeframe.

    ESS managing director Jamie Davis said,“This acquisition affirms our commitment to the Indian subcontinent and the world and we are absolutely delighted to bring the exciting lineup of ICC Events to millions of cricket fans globally.”

    IS Bindra, the former Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president and India’s representative at the meeting, said: “This deal is good for the game and it shows cricket is growing.”
    One aspect that comes out of all this is that Sony Entertainment Television India, the incumbent ICC rights holder for the Indian subcontinent, has closed the chapter on its sports telecast ambitions, at least for the foreseeable future.

    As for ESPN Star, it has now reasserted its dominance of the sports broadcast arena, particularly in India in what has become a three sports network market – ESS, Zee Sports-Ten Sports and Nimbus’ Neo Sports.

  • Nimbus bags Bangla cricket rights for $ 56 million

    Nimbus bags Bangla cricket rights for $ 56 million

    MUMBAI: About the only consistent aspect of bidding for cricket rights is that no one seems to have a fix on just how high the numbers will go. Test minnows Bangladesh has sold to Nimbus Sport, the marketing rights for international cricket matches held in that country till 2012 for a whopping $ 56.88 million.

    To put some perspective on the matter, $11.75 million is what ESPN Star Sports paid the Bangladesh cricket Board (BCB) last time round when it acquired the rights for a period of five years. Those rights expired in April last year.

    The BCB’s new tender invitation is for the period 1 November 2006 to 31 March 2012. Bangladesh is expected to play 21-23 Test matches and 59-61 internationals during this period.

    Speaking to Indiantelevision.com earlier, ESPN India MD RC Venkateish had said that his network was certainly interested in renewing the rights.

    Nimbus’ bid was over $ 23 million higher than next in line Zee Telefilms’ tender, newswire Press Trust of India quoted Bangladesh Cricket Board general secretary Mahbub Anam as saying on Friday.
    “We will sign a contract with Nimbus within the next two weeks. All we need now is the government’s seal of approval,” Anam said.

    Two key clauses in the tender document issued by the BCB were:

    * Production the responsibility of the bidder though there are allowable expenses against the winning bid (subject to the board agreeing) including production costs.

    * All revenues will be shared between BCCB and the successful bidder in a ratio of 80:20 in favour of BCCB.

    Nimbus’ telecast of Bangladesh cricket begins later this month with a five-match one-day series against Zimbabwe. After that, Bangladesh plays Bermuda and Canada in early 2007 (two ODIs each).